Aluminum Co. of America v. Burlington Truck Lines, Inc.

• Decision Date: 03 May 1972
• Docket Number: No. 70 C 1191-70 C 1195,70 C 1198-70 C 1200.,70 C 1191-70 C 1195
• Citation: 342 F. Supp. 166
• Parties: ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA, a Pennsylvania corporation, Plaintiff, v. BURLINGTON TRUCK LINES, INC., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

342 F. Supp. 166

ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA, a Pennsylvania corporation, Plaintiff, v. BURLINGTON TRUCK LINES, INC., et al., Defendants.

Nos. 70 C 1191-70 C 1195, 70 C 1198-70 C 1200.

United States District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

May 3, 1972.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Pope, Ballard, Kennedy, Shepard & Fowle, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Donald Levine, Axelrod, Goodman, Steiner & Bazelon, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

WILL, District Judge.

The plaintiff in these actions is suing the various defendant motor carriers for refund of freight charges pursuant to orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The plaintiff presently moves for summary judgments and, in each of these cases but one, the defendants move to dismiss the actions, or in the alternative, move for summary judgments in their favor based upon the same grounds by which they oppose the plaintiff's motions for summary judgment.¹

The plaintiff has previously brought suit against three other motor carriers based upon the same orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission² and, in response to the plaintiff's motions for summary judgment in those cases, this Court ruled that the orders were valid and that the plaintiff was entitled to the refunds. Subsequent to that ruling, we denied the defendants' motions for a new trial and to alter and amend the judgments. Because the Court's memorandum opinions accompanying our rulings on those motions³ plus the memorandum opinion granting plaintiff's motion for attorneys' fees⁴ discuss much of the factual background and legal conclusions relevant to these lawsuits, we adopt and incorporate those opinions into this opinion by reference and we do not, therefore, repeat the factual background of this suit.

I

The defendants' initial grounds for opposing the plaintiff's motions for summary judgment are the same that their counsel took in response to the plaintiff's motions for summary judgment in the three prior cases and, in support thereof, they incorporate all their briefs from the prior suits. We analyzed and considered these arguments in our prior opinions incorporated herein and, as there outlined, do not find them to be meritorious.

II

The defendants next assert grounds for opposing plaintiff's summary judgment motions which, the carriers claim, are "supplemental" to the grounds asserted by the defendant motor carriers in the three prior cases. Considering their prior briefs in opposition to plaintiff's original summary judgment motions in the three prior cases and their "supplemental" briefs in support of their motions to vacate the adverse judgments entered therein, the new "supplemental" briefs filed in these proceedings are the third attempt by counsel for the motor carriers to conjure up theories to aid their clients to abrogate their understanding with the Commission to roll back any charges collected from shippers during the Commission proceedings and which ultimately were not approved. Because each of these cases is a separate proceedings, however, we must consider the "supplemental" grounds asserted by the defendants herein.

The defendants' initial "supplemental" argument is that "the plaintiff seeks to have this Court give far greater vitality and effect to the purported `order' of the Interstate Commerce Commission upon which plaintiff relied than was ever intended by that Commission." In support of this conclusion, the carriers submit copies of the brief of the United States and the Interstate Commerce Commission filed before the Denver three judge Court in Admiral-Merchants Motor Freight, Inc., et al. v. United States,⁵ wherein the motor carriers unsucessfully sought to overturn the Commission's refund orders.

The carriers contend that a perusal of the ICC brief indicates that the Commission, interpreting its own order, asserted before the three judge court that (1) the refund order was based upon duties of the carriers which arose under the common law doctrine of restitution and not under the Interstate Commerce Act and (2) such order would not be enforceable per se against the carriers under the doctrine of restitution without the carriers being provided an opportunity to challenge the equities in subsequent restitution proceedings. The carriers argue that with these assertions before it, the Denver Court's ruling on the validity of the ICC order was not intended to foreclose the carriers from later again challenging that order.

We have read the briefs submitted by the Government to the Denver Court and the carriers' description of them is at least arguable although the precise meaning of a subsequent "challenge of the equities" is unclear. Had the Denver Court ruled on the basis outlined in those briefs, the carriers' theory that they should now be entitled to submit evidence on the equities in the restitution suits might be appropriate. There are, however, two reasons why their theory is inapposite and why the Commission's view of the refund order is irrelevant to these proceedings.

First, the Denver Court, in ruling for the ICC and dismissing the carriers' complaint, specifically did not rely upon the Government's proferred theory of restitution as a basis for upholding the order. After noting the Government's theory of common law restitution, the Court responded that a legislative tribunal cannot exercise common law or equitable jurisdiction unless such power has been expressly granted to it by Congress, but that this consideration was immaterial because the Commission did not undertake to apply common law or equity principles. Rather, it merely had imposed the refund order as a condition for granting an extension of time in the hearings on the proposed increases, a purely procedural matter which was clearly within its power. The Court continued:

An even stronger argument for refusal to annul the Commission's order is the doctrine of equitable estoppel. We have in mind the principle which imposes an obligation on a person to live up to his representations or conduct in circumstances where inequitable consequences would result to persons having the right to rely, and who in good faith did rely on the representations made. Applied to the case at bar the Commission certainly relied on the carriers' withdrawal of their jurisdictional objection to the refund condition. The Commission's reliance was evidenced by its failure to vacate the order. It did not have to anticipate that the carriers would renege. The carriers' withdrawal of their timely objection was a positive act which evidenced willingness to go along with the condition imposed.

It can also be argued that there was a binding waiver on the part of the carriers resulting from their affirmative withdrawal of their objection . . .⁶

It is clear from this lengthy quote that the Denver Court ruled on a basis wholly apart from that suggested by the Commission and that the Commission's brief before that Court discussing its restitutional theory is immaterial in these proceedings.

The second reason why the ICC briefs in Denver are immaterial in these suits is that these are not restitution proceedings. In the three prior suits before this Court, we declined to reach the restitution issue and the plaintiff does not now attempt to raise it in its current motions for summary judgment. Its motions, rather, are based upon Sections 16(2) and 205(g) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 49 U.S.C. §§ 16(2), 305 (g). The ICC's suggestion in Denver that the carriers could argue the equities in subsequent restitution suits, therefore, has no bearing on suits based upon a different jurisprudential basis.

In summary, it is apparent that the carriers' statements that the plaintiff seeks to have the Court give a greater vitality and effect to the refund order than was ever intended by the ICC is of no merit because (1) the Denver Court, whose holding was affirmed without opinion by the United States Supreme Court, rested its decision upon a basis wholly apart from the arguments submitted by the Commission and (2) these suits are not, in any event, restitution suits.

III

The carriers' next two "supplemental" grounds for denying plaintiff's motions for summary judgment are that Rule 15 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure cannot be utilized to revive causes of action which have expired prior to the time a plaintiff seeks to assert new theories for its cause of action and that, in any event, no claim for relief has been stated on the facts alleged. As these two grounds have been thoroughly discussed in our prior opinions incorporated herein, we need not again reiterate our reasons for concluding that these arguments are not meritorious.

In response to the carriers' suggestion that the plaintiff fails to state a claim for relief, we would only state for the third time during the course of this litigation that, contrary to the defendants' persistent characterization, the plaintiff's cause of action is not based upon a theory of reparations,⁷ but is nothing more than a very arduous attempt on its parts to compel the carriers to honor their end of the roll-back agreement which, as noted above, the Denver three-judge Court believed, as we do, the carriers are estopped from contesting. That the defendants continue to characterize the plaintiff's suits as an attempt to circumvent the burden that would be upon it in a statutory reparation proceedings, when everybody involved agrees that these are not such proceedings, can be considered as nothing more than a smoke screen to hide the plain fact that the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed a decision which states that the carriers are estopped from contesting and have waived their right to challenge the validity of the Commission refund order.

IV

The defendants' next argument in opposition to the plaintiff's motions for summary judgment is that the plaintiff seeks to assert herein the nonevidentiary findings made in Admiral-Merchants Motor Freight, Inc., et al....